Hunger Games PrePeeta
by foxface99
Summary: This is the version of the Hunger Games when Katniss first met Gale.
1. Chapter 1

My name is Gale Hawthorne. I am 14 years old. I have 2 brothers. Rory and Vick. I also have 1 sister, Posy. I am the oldest and I have little to no friends. My mother, Hazelle, works as a washer woman. I hunt illegally to help support our family. My father died in a mining accident when posy was a little baby. Story of my life.

I hunt to help feed the many mouths of my family. That's where I'm going now.

"I'm going to go hunt now…" I tell my mother so she doesn't flip when I leave.

"Ok…" she says to me. Eyes still closed.

I live in the seam part of district 12. District 12 is on the edge of our "country." We have a capitol called Panem. All the rich people live in district 4+. Then all of the other districts get to starve to death and no one cares. District 12 is the poorest of all of the districts. District 12; where you can starve to death in safety.

The capitol sends peacekeepers to each district to make sure a rebellion does not happen again. There were once 13 districts that surrounded the capitol. District 13 got exiled because they started the rebellion. Everyone else followed. We call those the "dark days." That's why the capitol hates us so much.

I pass by some of the miners that work in the coal mines. They're on their way to work when I get to the supposedly "electrified" fence that surrounds District 12. It's hardly ever electrified. Beyond the fence, there are forests and meadows and some lakes too. There are a lot of wild animals. This is where I hunt.

I grab my bow from under a log and then I get my arrows from a hollowed out tree. Then I go check my snare line and I see someone poking around.

"Don't take my snare. Make your own" I say coldly.

"I don't know how. And I wasn't taking it I was looking at it." The stranger says

"Hmm… What's your name?" she's a she.

"Katniss" she says it so quietly.


	2. Chapter 2

"Catnip?" I dint hear her.

"No… its Katniss." She speaks up this time.

"Whatever you say Catnip…" sarcasm is high in my voice. "So why are you here? You know… hunting illegally…?" She's hiding behind a tree. I'm not that intimidating…?

"My father died and I need to learn how to hunt." She's still quiet. "What's your name?"

"Gale. Gale Hawthorne." I say.

"Ok." She says with question in her voice.

"Do you know how to hunt?" I ask

"Kind of… I'm good with a bow and arrow though." She says coolly as if hoping for approval.

"Hmm… come with me." I lead her to the end of my snare line. We walk in silence. When we get there I finally break the silence. "Do you know how to make or use a snare?"

"A what?" she is so stupid.

"A snare. It's something that if people can hunt then they use it to catch animals." I explain.

"No I don't…" more stupidity comes out of her mouth.

"Hmm. Well then." I see a rabbit. "Do you see that rabbit? Shoot it." I have to say it quietly so that it doesn't run away. Or hop. Either would suck really though.

"Are you sure? What if I miss and it runs away?" she asks.

"So what… there are plenty of rabbits in the woods. If you miss then we will find another rabbit."


	3. Chapter 3

"Ok…" with that she aims at the rabbit. As far as I can tell she is aiming for the eye. She draws the bow back. The string is making her nose squish up like a pug. It's actually kind of cute. Hmm… She lets the arrow fly and its actually pretty good. It hits the neck. Right in the middle and the whole lower half is blood red. With blood.

"Wow that's really good… "I say. "What were you aiming for?"

"The Eye. I always do but I'm not that good." She says casually.

"Not that good? That was better than everyone in District 12! Well besides me…" I smirk.

"Well there aren't that many good hunters here you know…" she says

"Still that's good… now let's go to hob. Have you ever been there?" I ask.

"Yes but only when my father was with me… he died in a mining accident awhile ago." She says

"Mine too…" I tell.

"So how do we get there? You know… to the hob?" she asks.

"It's on the outskirts of District 12" I say.

She goes to pick up the dead rabbit and takes out her arrow. Her hair falls in her eyes and she takes it out. As she does, the rabbit falls to the forest floor. I reach down to pick it up and so does she. Our hands touch. We don't move our hands and stare into each other's eyes for awhile. She finally pulls away. We don't speak until we reach the hob.

"So here it is…" I finally say.

"Wow… it seems a lot smaller than when I was here last time…" she exclaims.

"Or you've gotten bigger" I confront.

"Probably." She is still taking in her surroundings.


	4. Chapter 4

I walk inside. She is on my heels. We walk over to Greasy Sae's stall. She works in the black market called the hob. She makes soup and I sell her most of the meat that I get from the animals. Or Mr. Mellark. He's a baker for the higher class part of district 12. If there is such a thing.

We walk over to her stall and sell her the meat. Then I walk around and say hello to everyone that is regular there-like me- and we leave.

"Do you come here often?" she finally speaks up.

"Enough to feed my family." I answer.

"So you rely on this?" she asks

"Yes. And my tessarae." I say.

"I do that too..." she says with enthusiasm in her voice. Tessarae is not a good thing to do. It means your name is entered more times in the reaping ball.

"A lot of people from the seam do. Just another way the capitol has us wrapped around their multicolored fingernails." I say with disgust in my voice.

It's almost noon by now. I don't have watch but I can tell from the position of the sun. There aren't many watches here in District 12. It's not like people can afford it even if they wanted one.

"Will you be here tomorrow?" she asks.

Her question catches me off guard. She wants to team up. "You want to hunt with me?"

"Ya… I mean you know how to hunt. I don't." she is complementing me… well played Catnip.

"Hmm… ok why not. I will be there tomorrow. Meet me where you tried to take my catch in my snare.

"I wasn't trying to take it… like I said I was just looking at it." She's trying to defend herself. How cute.


	5. Chapter 5

"Whatever Catnip…" I say with sarcasm. So much sarcasm.

"My name is Katniss. I have to go home… my family will be wondering where I'm at…" she says that with doubt in her voice. Hmm…

"Ok… Tomorrow, at MY snare, right before dawn. Be there." I command.

"Ok… Bye Gale." She calls while walking away.

"Bye Catnip."

I go home and find that my little brother, Rory, is sick. Great. Nothing much else happens. I get tired and go to bed. I don't sleep much. Nightmares usually keep me up. Their always about the same thing; me being picked to go in the Hunger Games. Or my family being taken away from me. Or my brothers and sisters dying. And my mom. Or me dying. But all of those usually come with the Hunger Games.

I awake in the middle of the night screaming my head off. No one comes to my door anymore because it's become a regular thing. Posy might wake up every now and then just because our doors might be open but otherwise no one. I drift back to sleep but then wake in the morning because of another nightmare. My mother is already up because she is backed up with work. I'm up an hour earlier than usual.

"Why are you going out so early?" my mom asks me before I dart out the door.

"I'm going to hunt." I say smoothly.

"At 5:30 in the morning? I don't think so…" she stops cleaning and walks over to the counter and motions me to sit. I do. "Ok so what's up with you?" she asks.

"Fine… I met this girl yesterday in the woods. Her father died in the same explosion that killed dad. She is amazing with a bow and arrow and I'm going to teach her how to hunt and make a decent snare." I explain

"Ok… be careful Gale…" my mom doesn't think I know this. She pulls me over and gives me a hug and a kiss on my forehead.


	6. Chapter 6

I leave and go to the meeting place. Turns out that I'm the late one.

"Took you long enough." Katniss says.

"Well I'm sorry Catnip."

"Whatever…" she says

"Ok so are we going to keep arguing about who did what or do you want to go hunting?" I ask

"Hunt." She says.

We start off by checking my snare line and getting the catch from them. There are about 20 snares and we got I think 14 animals. I gave her some squirrels to trade. I try to teach her how to make a snare but she ends up catching my hands. It wasn't because I walked into it; it was because she made it wrong. No matter what we try she can't get my hands out. I'm not of much help because both of my hands are stuck. She gets tangled up in the free rope and trips and falls. I fall with her as she lands on top of me. We look at each other and start laughing. If any peace keepers were around, we would be dead. We sit up and eventually get set free.

"You ok?" she asks.

I laugh. "Ya I am… what about you?"

"Yes." She smiles.

A deer comes a little too close for comfort and we quickly grab our weapons. She has her bow and arrow up first so I let her have the shot. She looks at me for a nod of approval. I nod with approval. She lets go of the string and the bow finds its way in the deer's neck. Her aim would be perfect if she were aiming there. The deer falls down with a thud and we go to pick it up. We drag it over to the end of our snare line. By we I mean me.

"Can you help me with my aim?" she asks when we set the deer down.


	7. Chapter 7

"Ya sure…" I say.

I walk over to her and she puts her bow up. Here form is right and so is her stance. She puts her arrow in but it's not perfect. I try to help her from where I'm at but I don't have a good angle to see. Eventually, after messing around and not getting anywhere, I just put my arms around her and show her. Much better angle. She's warm too. But not like fire to the touch… more like the Sun beaming down on you. It feels nice. I help her draw the bow back and then let it go. It goes straight into the eye of a squirrel.

"Oh my god. We did it!" she drops her bow and arrows and turns around. She throws her arms around me and jumps up to hug me. I guess this was a big accomplishment for her. I don't know why though. I play along and hug her back. I spin around too just to add effect. She lets go a second before I do.

"Thank you!" she says.

"No problem…" I force myself to say what isn't really on my mind…


	8. Chapter 8

We do this little arrangement for about 3 weeks. She progressively gets closer the eye of the animal. Her snares get better too. Not good enough to catch a deer or anything big but squirrels and rabbits get caught there sometimes. We get more use to each other and we start bringing some food for the two of us. She usually brings so spare cheese from her sister's goat and I sometimes bring some strawberries from a nearby patch. One day, about a week after the Reapings for the Hunger Games, we were looking around a little farther out than we usually go, she saw a mountain lion.

"And may the odds-" I mimicked Effie Trinket who always draws the names for District 12's tributes. Luckily not too loud or else we would be dead.

"Gale, Shut Up." She says softly but with annunciations on it.

"What? I'm just messing around it's not like-" she cut me off by stomping on my foot.


	9. Chapter 9

"There is a Mountain Lion over there in that cave and I don't want you to scare him off." With that she takes out her bow and puts an arrow in it. She draws the arrow and lets it go. It hits the mountain lions eye with such perfection; I don't think he saw it coming. Haha. The lion hits the ground with a loud thud. As we race over there to drag it back up the hill, Katniss trips and falls over a ledge and lands on her ankle wrong.

"Gale! Gale! Gale Help!" she cries. Literally.

"It's ok… I'm here… what hurts." I ask.

"My ankle…" tears are streaming down her cheeks.

"Ok well let's get you back home to your mom." Her mom is a healer. She used to work at an apothecary shop.

With that I scoop her up into my arms and carefully tread so I don't fall.


	10. Chapter 10

"How badly does it hurt?"

"A lot…" she says. Tears have stopped streaming but it's occasional.

"I'm sorry…" is all I can say.

Life has faced me a new challenge. Getting her over the fence. It's not electrified but I always slide under it. It's about 10-15 ft tall. So I just walk a mile and a half until I get to a place where the fence was broken. It's on the very edge of the seam so it's obvious why no one has found it or bothered to fix it. I walk back to her house and knock on the door. Katniss is asleep on my shoulder. She's cute while she sleeps. She doesn't look as tired or worn out as opposed to when she's awake. Her mom comes to the door and gasps. So does her sister Primrose but instead of just looking she goes to get her mother's supplies that she needs to fix it. I lay her on her bed and sit down on the ground. She wakes up.

"Hey." She tries to get up. A loud moan emanates from her. Her ankle must be killing her.

"Owwww…" she says somewhat asleep.


	11. Chapter 11

"Shh… just stay there. You're at your own house and your mom is going to take care of you." I start to get up to go but she stops me and grabs my hand.

"Wait… please… stay with me…" the little morphling that her mother gave her is already taking effect.

So I sit there and hold her hand until she falls asleep. She does so and then her mother and prim go to work. It's so crazy to watch the two of them work. It's like their in their own little world that has the two of them and the patient. The morphling wears off quickly and Katniss wakes up.

She moans but doesn't actually say anything or open her eyes. I sit there stroking her hair… touching her cheek… not even paying attention to what Prim and her Mother are doing. I kiss her when I think that the morphling has taken its toll. I hope it has. I thank Prim and her Mother and leave. They tell me that if I wish I could come back tomorrow to check on her. I quickly agree.


	12. Chapter 12

I take the long hike back to the mountain lion and trade it at the hob. I get a lot of money for it and I set aside the most of it for Katniss. She shot it anyway. I go home and eat dinner. We had squirrel and hot water. A delicacy in my house.

That night the nightmares I have aren't about me getting drawn in the reaping ball and going to fight to the death on the Hunger Games. Or about my family dying. Or about my siblings becoming sick. The nightmare is about losing Katniss. That's all I can think about. I lie in my bed and stare at the ceiling for quite some time. I don't sleep much that night. All I can think about is how much in love I am with Katniss Everdeen.

Time passes as I look up at the ceiling for answers. Small strands of light passes through the window and I get up and pull on my hunting boots. I pull on my coat. Its snowing outside. The ground isn't completely covered in white flakes yet but at the rate its going it won't be long. I write a note and leave it on my counter. I don't bother waking up my mom or siblings because then they will all get up to play outside. I would have to sit outside and watch them to make sure they don't drown in half an inch of snow. Their stupid. I leave the house and make me way to Katniss' house. Her mother is surely up by now. Or her sister, Prim. Katniss is probably still battling with the effects of the Morphling. I knock on the door of their house and her mom comes to the door.


	13. Chapter 13

"I didn't expect you to be here so early." She blurts out.

"I wanted to make sure she was ok. " I say.

"Ok…" she leads me to Katniss' bed and she's a mess.

Her hair is messed up and it looks like she didn't sleep at all the whole night. Her ankle is propped up on a mound of pillows. Her eyes are barely opening now. "Hey…" I say

"Hi" her eyes are open by now.

"How badly does it hurt?"I ask.

"Less and less but that's with the morphling though…" she says.

"I hope it feels better… Good hunting partners are hard to find." I say

"I remember last night… you kissed me." She says this and it takes me off guard.


	14. Chapter 14

"Oh…" I'm stunned.

"I didn't know you liked me… like that." She says with a smile on her face.

"Well… I mean you looked so innocent and helpless… I had to do it at least-" she sits up and holds my face in her hands and kisses me. On the lips. It feels better than last night because she's actually kissing me back. We pull away from each other. Only an inch though.

"I have to go…" is all I can say before her mom comes in and I leave.

I don't know what to do. I head back to the woods to hunt. I'm going to hunt for the rest of the day so that I can get some extra food for Katniss… Katniss… She is taking over my mind. She's all I can think about. All that's on my mind… and whenever I see her I get these pains in my chest and I don't know why.


	15. Chapter 15

I grab my bow and arrow and try to find some game to hunt. I finally find a squirrel and shoot it. It doesn't go in its usual place in the animal's eye. Its strikes the tree that it was sitting on. The squirrel ran away. I walked awhile and then tripped over a fallen tree. I landed on my wrist.

"Aghhhhhhh!" I scream in pain.

The pain is excruciating. Now I know what Katniss went through yesterday when she rolled her ankle. I start crying from the unbearable pain. I fall back into as far as I know is a soft pile of leaves and they crumple under by back. I grit my teeth to try and ease the pain but it doesn't work. I lie on the ground of the meadow for awhile and debate with myself whether or not if I should get up and head for home or try and go to Katniss' house and have her mom try to fix me. The sun has already begun to set. If I try to get home now then my family will already be asleep. God… my mom will be worried sick… but if I try to go to Katniss' house, then her mom should still be up… maybe prim too… or I could get closer to the fence but not to close, and just stay there. I like that plan.


End file.
